In the News

As the election year begins and we await the presidential and super PAC filings due Jan. 31, it’s a good time to look…backward. Major hauls for the fourth quarter of 2015 are being reported by some candidates to conclude a year that started slowly for them and saw much funding going to super PACs backing…

Federal prosecutors charged three members of Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign staff Tuesday, alleging the three filed false campaign documents in order to cover up an illegal $25,000 payment made to an Iowa state senator to buy political support for Paul in 2011, according to a six-count indictment handed down Wednesday. In the indictment, prosecutors allege that…

Just over 24 hours after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) announced his candidacy earlier this month to become the next president of the United States, his campaign was already celebrating — at least on social media. In a tweet, the campaign showed the digital flip scoreboard that dominates his campaign website tipping over $1 million. “INCREDIBLE,”…

Silicon Valley has staked its claim in Washington. From Capitol Hill to the White House, tech money is everywhere — and 2016 looks like it will be the industry’s biggest year yet. Tech may not be pushing as much cash into politics as Wall Street, but its influence is on an upward climb. Its lobbying has…

A federal investigation into events surrounding the Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign in Iowa is ongoing and “making progress,” the Des Moines Register reported today. During a brief hearing that included federal prosecutors and the attorney representing a former Iowa state senator who has pleaded guilty to breaking campaign finance rules in connection with the campaign, prosecutors said they are…

It was the best of years or it was the worst of years, depending on your perspective. The Supreme Court’s McCutcheon decision and Congress’ green light allowing national party committees to set up additional accounts — and accept a lot more money — were the big legal developments of the year in terms of political…

The Ron Paul presidential campaign of 2012 is not over. In fact, the legal entity that controlled the campaign had $576,000 in the bank on Sept. 30 — a substantial sum for a White House bid that effectively ended two-and-a-half years ago. Leftover campaign cash can be used for a variety of purposes, but since August,…

The involvement of immediate family members in a drunken brawl does little to boost one’s political prospects. On a different level, the same might be said of a stingy leadership PAC. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s SarahPAC continued to perform underwhelmingly as a source of funds for other candidates in 2014’s third quarter, a…

Last week’s guilty plea by former Iowa State Sen. Kent Sorenson wasn’t the end of the federal investigation into the 2012 Iowa caucus payola scandal — not by a longshot. OpenSecrets Blog has learned that FBI agents have been interviewing a slew of witnesses connected to Ron Paul’s presidential campaign and grand jury subpoenas have been…

A former Iowa state senator has pleaded guilty to federal charges that he accepted money from the Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign to switch his endorsement from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who was also running for the GOP White House nomination. Kent Sorenson, of Milo, Iowa, has been at the center of accusations that he was…

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